A Generic Model of Regulating Supply Chain Outsourcing

Abstract

This paper is about a set of interrelated labour law initiatives called "supply chain regulation." This set of labour law initiatives signal the progressive transcendence of direct employment as a focus of labour law. Supply chain regulation originated as a response to the exploitation of outworkers in the apparel industry. However, the development of supply chain regulation in successive jurisdictions confirms that it is progressively being transformed into a generic model of regulating supply chain outsourced work. The paper considers the extent to which a number of statutory schemes, including the most advanced, generic legislative system of supply chain regulation, transcend reliance on both the concept of direct employment and the apparel sector as foci of regulation. The extent to which supply chain regulation can protect a broad scope of legal entitlements beyond the recovery of unpaid wages is also considered. Given these innovations, it is argued that supply chain regulation has important ramifications for the future of regulating supply chain outsourcing.

Keywords: labor law, contract law, regulation and business law - general, wages, compensation and labor costs - general, nonwage labor costs and benefits, particular labor markets - general, particular labor markets - other, labor-management relations, industrial juriprudence

JEL Classification: K31,K12,K20,J30,J32,J40,J49,J53,L10,L22,P12,L23